South Korea pushes for renewed diplomacy with North Korea
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to help make peace with North Korea "just as he resolved the conflict in the Middle East," his office announced on Wednesday, according to AFP.
Donald Trump asked the South Korean president about the state of inter-Korean relations during a meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian, France, Seoul's presidential office said in a statement, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.
During the conversation, Lee "asked Trump to take the initiative in achieving a peaceful resolution of the North Korean issue, just as he resolved the conflict in the Middle East," the statement said.
According to the South Korean presidential office, Trump "expressed his commitment to working toward a solution to the North Korean issue."
Shortly after announcing an agreement with Iran, the U.S. president posted an uncaptioned photograph on social media showing himself alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018.
However, "from North Korea's perspective, there is practically no reason to meet with the United States," Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
Lee Jae Myung is seeking to improve relations with North Korea, which reached a low point under his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol. However, Pyongyang has designated South Korea as its "most hostile enemy" and warned it would respond "mercilessly" to any perceived provocation.
North Korea has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible nuclear state" following the collapse of the 2019 summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump due to disagreements over denuclearization and sanctions relief. Kim later received crucial support from Moscow after sending thousands of troops to assist Russian forces in the war against Ukraine, AFP noted.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was warmly received in North Korea in early June, also expressed his desire to take relations with Pyongyang to "new heights."
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